Mallow & Lana! A Fully Powered Battle of Friendship!! (1073)

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Mallow & Lana! A Fully Powered Battle of Friendship!!

It's the knock out rounds of the Alola Pokémon League to make the Top 16 come down to the Top 8. The battles are tense when it comes to Ash's Meltan VS Faba's Hypno, Ilima's Kangaskhan VS Guzma's Scizor, Hau's Raichu VS Samson Oak's Exeggutor but the big battle is between the two best friends of Lana and Mallow. With Primarina facing down against Tsareena, the tense battle will put their friendship to the test. Who will win?

SM manage to turn what should have been a stomp into a development episode, and showed remarkable fidelity to the characters they've built up so far.

I'm not happy about the outcome (for tangential reasons) but I really appreciate how this unfolded.

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Here's a write-up. Spoilers, obviously.

-Ash beats Faba
-Guzma beats Ilima
-Hau beats Oak
-Lana beats Mallow

Guzma defeated Ilima by sandwiching the baby Mega Kangaskhan between the mum and Scizor, then quickly flanking the mum with X-Scizors and returning to place. The adult Kangaskhan wouldn't attack over the baby, and Scizor didn't have trouble dodging the baby's attacks.

Hau beats Alolan Exeggutor with Focus Blast after Thunderbolt did nothing. He used Quick Attack to dodge Dragon Hammer, exposing the neck and leaving a big target for Focus Blast.

Lana's Primarina learned Icy Wind. Seeing this, Mallow lost her nerve and tried to recall Tsareena, but Tsareena refused to give up the fight. Lana and Tsareena convinced Mallow to find her courage and continue to battle. Bloom Doom was successful but was negated by Oceanic Operetta. Primarina then finished off Tsareena with Aqua Jet.

Tsareena didn't do any damage to Primarina, I think. Even with the type-advantage the power/experience difference was far too great.

Yeah, I'm not a fan of Lana so I'm annoyed she won since she wins at everything and Mallow is just continually shafted every time she might have a chance to shine. Guzma knowing to attack the mother instead of the child is pretty cool and I'm sad Ash v Faba was so short, Meltan seems pretty powerful if it can take a pokemon down in two hits

So correct me if I'm wrong, is this one of the rare times in recent memory where a main cast character revealed a new move out of the blue, instead of actually learning it onscreen (referring to Primarina learning Ice Wind)? I remember Vulpix apparently learned Hail randomly as well in the episode where it learned Aurora Veil.

Yeah, I'm not a fan of Lana so I'm annoyed she won since she wins at everything and Mallow is just continually shafted every time she might have a chance to shine. Guzma knowing to attack the mother instead of the child is pretty cool and I'm sad Ash v Faba was so short, Meltan seems pretty powerful if it can take a pokemon down in two hits

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Yeah I’m sorry this “they learned it off screen” thing is getting really tiring. As Cardi B once said “how freaking convenient is that”. You mean to tell me Lana is some psychic who KNEW she would be battling Mallow and magically taught Primarina Icy Wind?

So correct me if I'm wrong, is this one of the rare times in recent memory where a main cast character revealed a new move out of the blue, instead of actually learning it onscreen (referring to Primarina learning Ice Wind)? I remember Vulpix apparently learned Hail randomly as well in the episode where it learned Aurora Veil.

I was actually trying to give the benefit of doubt to SM, and thought only Hail and Icy Wind today were the only moves that were taught offscreen. Didn't realise it was so many. So because almost no one trained on screen or did any battling, this series has had to rely on numerous occasions of having the classmates pull something new out of their ass.

Yeah I’m sorry this “they learned it off screen” thing is getting really tiring. As Cardi B once said “how freaking convenient is that”. You mean to tell me Lana is some psychic who KNEW she would be battling Mallow and magically taught Primarina Icy Wind?

I wouldn't say Icy Wind won her the battle. Mallow and Tsareena landed zero hits, and Primarina was just able to dodge Tropical Kick later on. Icy Wind just was used as a plot-device to demotivate Mallow and give her an emotional moment with her Pokemon.

I wouldn't say Icy Wind won her the battle. Mallow and Tsareena landed zero hits, and Primarina was just able to dodge Tropical Kick later on. Icy Wind just was used as a plot-device to demotivate Mallow and give her an emotional moment with her Pokemon.

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Okay okay, I was under the conclusion that was the game changer. I still feel like I’ll be upset by the actual battle itself but I’ll watch it later to put an accurate judgment in.

The classmates were surprised at Icy Wind, so yes. The last time something like this happened was Krookodile's Aerial Ace.

Also, I feel like this episode was written specifically for DatsRight. It's oddly meta in how it addressed all his points.

DatsRight said:

Like the very instant the cute widdle girls of the group risk a counter or getting hurt remotely...the match is called off in some way, which also has the side effect of making the girls look like total glass cannons who can talk and shoot big but can't take it back in the slightest. They NEVER have to learn to resist or use counter attacks or even just improvise past the first approach of spamming base attacks, and that's meant to be a really big part of battling.

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Everything in this quote happened. Once Mallow saw the Icy Wind area denial, she tried to forfeit...spamming regular attacks didn't work and she didn't have the experience or ingenuity to improvise. All she had was the Z-Move, which was countered, and so she lost...but resolved to get stronger.

For most trainers, the Pokemon League is the culmination of their Pokemon journey. For Mallow, this is where her journey begins.

What a cliff-hanger it was. Even at the end of the battle, I was considering the possibilities of Tsareena's Queenly Majesty activating and neutralizing Aqua Jet to go for a swift Trop Kick. None of the series' battles have sparked me such interest and hype.

Primarina's unrevealed Icy Wind was a nice tactic to counter Mallow, it also was unexpected. Have to say, I could've been a tad bitter if Mallow would've won it after giving up. I'm happy the writers chose the experience and personally can't wait to see Primarina in action once again despite that means no Shaymin in the league.

If only Scizor's X-Scissor animation didn't repeat itself thrice, I'd say it was a well-worth battle. Props to the team for animating Mega Kangaskhan so well, the baby was cute.

With Mallow's elimination, I also just realised that there'll be no more Shaymin. This is just my opinion, but till date, Shaymin is arguably the most useless second Pokémon in a cast we've ever seen, and it's a mythical to boot. Even when it did knock out some Pokémon in the Royal, it wasn't even shown. They might've as well not bothered giving Mallow a second Pokémon.

Extremely happy Lana won, and I'm glad Primarina finally got a non-water move. The icing on the cake would be if Eevee evolves into Vaporeon in the break between top 16 and top 8, but we'll see.

I'm kind of disappointed Meltan's battle was kind of...joke driven, but at least it's something. I wish it could have been Melmetal for the league though, I'm worried it'll be too little too late when it does happen.

Extremely happy Lana won, and I'm glad Primarina finally got a non-water move. The icing on the cake would be if Eevee evolves into Vaporeon in the break between top 16 and top 8, but we'll see.

I'm kind of disappointed Meltan's battle was kind of...joke driven, but at least it's something. I wish it could have been Melmetal for the league though, I'm worried it'll be too little too late when it does happen.

With Mallow's elimination, I also just realised that there'll be no more Shaymin. This is just my opinion, but till date, Shaymin is arguably the most useless second Pokémon in a cast we've ever seen, and it's a mythical to boot. Even when it did knock out some Pokémon in the Royal, it wasn't even shown. They might've as well not bothered giving Mallow a second Pokémon.

Meltan is a hard counter for Faba. Steel resists Psychic, and both Alakazam/Hypno carry metal objects that they need for mental stability. I'll also point out that Meltan shattered Reflect with Headbutt, so it's quite powerful even though its current moveset is rubbish.

I'm disappointed at Shaymin too because the last time Ash has had an official battle against a legendary was during "The Semi-Final Frontier". Silvally isn't as cheek-clenching as Darkrai or Latios, even if it's much stronger than the game version.